Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Meet Robert Wacaster:)

Hi, my name is
Robert Wacaster and my latest release is called A
Writer’s Love Story and is the first in a series of three books
(Possibly four...working on the fourth now) about two characters named Robert
and Katie. Robert is a new author with a
best selling book and Katie happens to be the executive assistant for his
editor. Through a chance meeting Robert
ends up buying Katie an expensive watch to cheer her up (She had just found out
the man she was going out with was married and had kids.) and she agrees to go
out to dinner with him. From there they
quickly fall in love. But this isn’t a
typical love story.

After only having
one weekend to get to know Katie, Robert has to leave for Hollywood where he’s
supposed to be consulting on casting for a movie based on his first book. Katie and Robert continue their relationship
through cell phone calls always telling each other they are “fine”. But things are far from fine. Robert has writer’s block and begins to
suffer from depression not able to stop thinking about Katie. He’s afraid to tell her about how he really
feels, or invite her to California with him thinking she has her own life in
New York. Meanwhile Katie is being
stalked by the married guy she was going out with and afraid to tell Robert
thinking he’s under a lot of stress in California and not wanting to worry
him. The two characters each deal with
their own problems until things finally come to a head and they finally do
share their real feelings with each other.
The story does have a very happy ending and prepares you to move into
the second book, A Writer’s Proposal which is due out later in the year.

Have you
ever had an idea for a story which scared you after you began writing it?

Not that scared
me while writing it. But I do have a
story with some odd characters in it that I really haven’t submitted or shown
to anyone. I thought it was hilarious
when I wrote it (a run of jokes about “squirrel tranquilizers” *chuckle*) but
now am not sure how people would take the sarcastic story. Maybe one of these days I’ll get brave enough
to show someone. *chuckle* I think it’s titled “Loving the Other
Side”. It’s off buried somewhere.

Have you
incorporated actual events from your own life into your books?

No, my books are
complete fiction. I do occasionally use
the names of people I’ve known throughout my life.

How much
research do you do? Do you research
first and then write, or do you write first, then research as needed?

A Writer’s Love Story really didn’t
require much research. I think about all
I did was to look up how much a new BMW would cost (A bit important to the
story. I don’t want to spoil things, so
you’ll have to read the book.
*chuckle*). And I also looked up
a price for a woman’s watch. That’s
about it. HOWEVER...

For the first
book I had accepted by Secret Cravings Publishing, I had to do quite a bit of
research! The book is called Kiss the Darkness and is
about an Air force sergeant who is blinded by a mortar blast in Afghanistan and
then falls in love with a nurse at a rehab hospital in Germany during his
recovery. I searched and searched to
find out anything I could about a military rehab hospital, but couldn’t find
any real information. No one wants to
talk about things like that. Finally
after an exhaustive search I did come across a blog written by the wife of an
Army captain who had been blinded by a mortar blast just like my
character. I did use a number of what
she had written in my story. Researching
blindness taught me that 70% of our perception is visual. Now imagine losing that! That’s quite a tough thing to have to deal
with! In some ways, that was a rough
book to write. It’s actually only a
“novella” at around 35,000 words.

Is there
any message you want readers to take from reading your work?

A lot of fiction
is based on reality. I haven’t yet found
the “Katie” who belongs in my life, but I’m sure she’s out there
somewhere. So for readers who delve into
romance novels thinking nothing like that will ever happen to you, you never
actually know. Someday someone special
might just walk right into your life and sweep you off your feet! There are plenty of true romance stories out
there. Go out and find yours!

Are you a
plotter or a pantser? And have you ever
had a story take on a life of its own?

I would have to be called a
“pantser”. I just sit down and
write. I do see the story in my
imagination and usually when I sit down to write I know where the plot is
going. But I don’t plan things out and
make plot notes and things like that.
Things just happen in a story for me.

How long
did it take for you to be published?

Now I’m not certain how to answer
this question. I’ve written for years
going all the way back to high school.
But until recently I never really kept anything I wrote, or tried to
write seriously. The major publishers
always made things so difficult to get anything published unless you were already
some huge best selling author. After
finishing my first novel back in 2007 I tried to query some literary agents and
just got back form rejection letters in the mail. They wouldn’t even read anything. Self publishing was just beginning and I went
that route. A few of my self published
books are pretty rough and not edited.
The two books with Secret Cravings Publishing are much more
professional, well edited, and have much nicer covers. I submitted my first book to Secret Cravings
last year in 2012. So maybe you could
say I was trying to get published since 2007?

If you
could go back and tell yourself anything when you first began your writing
career, what would you say?

If you really want to self publish,
get a real editor and have someone who knows what they’re doing design your
book covers. *chuckle*

Laptop or
pen and ink? What are your ‘must-haves’
when writing?

Laptop. I don’t think I’d be able to keep up with my
thoughts by using ink and paper anymore.
Too used to typing. I’m not sure
I could use any kind of voice dictation stuff either. I wouldn’t be comfortable trying to speak my
story out loud as I wrote it.

Who are
your favorite authors? Who would you say
influenced you the most?

My favorite author would have to
Stephen King. I love his books! But as to who has influenced me the most in
my writing career? Dawne Prochilo and
Sable Hunter. Dawne has probably helped
me more than she’ll ever realize as I moved into getting my books
published. She’s influenced a lot of my
writing, too. And Sable? Sable Hunter is a good friend who is probably
one of the sweetest, most humble authors I’ve ever come across. And the popularity of her books is something
I’d love to shoot for. Sable has shown
me that no matter how popular your writing may get, you still need to pay
attention to your readers.

What would
your readers be surprised to learn about you?

Probably that I’m still
single. *chuckle* After reading A
Writer’s Love Story (I used my own name for the main character) one lady
asked me if it was a true story. I told
her that no, it was all fiction. I am
hardly a best selling author and have never sold any movie rights for any of my
books. She then replied “No, I meant the
relationship. What went on between you
and Katie in the book just felt so real.”
*chuckle* Unfortunately no, none
of it was real.

For Fun:

What is
your favorite love scene to write or read?
(ie: First kiss, passion after a
fight, reunion)

My favorite would
probably be one that I had written myself and is near the end of A Writer’s Love Story. Robert is trying to come on to Katie and
keeps trying to kiss her and she keeps pushing him away telling him she needs
to concentrate. She wants him too, but
is trying to get him ready for an appointment.
Long story...sort of. *chuckle*

What is
your favorite Valentine’s Day memory?

I don’t know. Back in the military I left a Valentine’s Day
card taped to the door of a girl who had just had her wisdom teeth pulled. (Ah...no, she never did like me in that
way. *chuckle*) The other thing that stands out was a few
years ago when I sent a “Vermont Teddy Bear” to a girl who lives far away from
me. The bear has a heart tattoo on his
arm with her nick name inside it.
*chuckle* Sorry, can’t reveal
that friend’s name, though.

Sweetest
gift ever given to you?

My brother cleaned the spider webs
out of my garage a couple months ago.
Does that count?

Thank you
for being here today! Please tell us
where we can find your books.

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About Me

I've been writing since age 11, and wrote my first romance novel at age 19. I finally had the guts to seek publication for my series in 2002, much to the delight of everyone who's read my work and demanded to know why I wasn't published yet!